Nevada Teachers Rally Against No Child Left Behind Act

Teachers from Nevada and California came to the Biggest Little City to demand an immediate end to the No Child Left Behind Act.

The teachers say they're not only opposing the act, but also the re-authorization proposed by Congressman George Miller and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

""The re-authorization is trying to tie a teacher's salary to the success of a student," says Kenneth Buhrmann, the president of the Washoe Education Association. "And that's really unfair."

Buhrmann is scheduled to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday to discuss a new agenda. Many educators at the rally say the plan should feature more flexibility.

"We evaluate students in a wide variety of ways," says Douglass Bache, Vice-President of the Nevada State Education Association."And I think expanding our evaluation tools is something we need to do to show the progress of students."

According to its website, the White House says annual testing can adequately represent the performance of a child, teacher and school. The act authorizes the Secretary of Education to lower federal funding for states that fail to meet annual progress requirements, which is something Buhrmann says will destroy the education system instead of saving it.

"If it continues like this all schools aren't going to meet these requirements. And all schools are going to be labeled as failures."

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